Ahn D'Ar was a stinky little moon of planet Khrys inhabited by all sorts of species and all sorts of criminals. Rocky and barren, it was mostly used as an open-air office for smuggles and assassins looking for clients, and anyone venturing into its crowded, dusty streets needed to be aware of at least one thing: anything and anyone on Ahn D'Ar could potentially kill you.

Hux cursed under his breath, shouldering his way across the narrow Canyon Market. The hundreds of feet of brownish rock above him and the thousands of creatures bristling around made him claustrophobic – a very ironical feeling for a war criminal with a rich bounty upon his head.

He adjusted the hood of his cape, dreading his hair might attract unwanted attention. This had been a terrible idea; he should have stayed at the ship and sent Ren looking for food instead.

They'd been on the run for almost a month, now, and their supplies were running out more quickly than they'd both predicted. The Outer Rim offered infinite possibilities for people who wanted to disappear, but even here keeping a low profile was hard for two humans with luxurious uniforms and a TIE Silencer as a transportation. They needed something more anonymous and less showy, but they still hadn't stepped on a planet civilised enough to offer adequate replacements. Maybe this was the right one.

Hux made a face as he surpassed a seller displaying all sorts of Stormtrooper equipment, most of which had positively been plundered from whatever had been left of the First Order armoury. Somewhere out there, somebody was probably offering the Supremacy's remains as war memorabilia. Or perhaps the Resistance had claimed it for themselves, as a trophy of their victory and memento for future generations.

Hux huffed.

He'd been wandering in that madness for at least two hours when he found an old Hutt selling second hand clothes. He had some trouble with communication, but in the end he successfully managed to trade his trousers and jacket for a few rags for himself and Ren. He had hoped to get some local currency out of the deal, but the Hutt wasn't exactly amicable, so he'd settled for the horrid clothes and left without a single wupiupi in his pocket. If he wanted to go back with at least basic provisions, he was going to have to get creative.

Stupid primitive coins.

It took him another half an hour to find vaguely edible food. A human woman grinned at him with blackened teeth as he approached her stall. She didn't speak any language Hux knew, yet she was surprisingly quick in understanding his perplexity about her goods.

"Yum, yum!" she kept repeating, picking up small berry-like purple fruits from a wrecked basket and popping them into her mouth one after the other. "Yum, yum!"

Hux waited for her to taste a little bit of everything and asked for whatever looked closer to food he actually knew. He offered his scarf as a payment and didn't even have to bargain: although quite unrefined, the woman was no fool and was more than happy to get a garment made of pure Dramassian silk. It was a terrible trade: he could have bought the whole stall in exchange for that scarf – and probably the woman, as well – but he had an urgency to get rid of as many compromising items as possible and, anyway, his backpack was already full to the brim.

He was about to turn on his heels and head back to Ren and the ship when he noticed a butcher stall on the other side of the street.

Meat. He could definitely use some meat.

" 'ooman, huh?" said the butcher. It had a set of four milky eyes randomly scattered over a rough, round fish face. "No many 'ooman 'ere."

Hux ignored him and retreated further into his hood. He couldn't recognise most of the varieties, nor he had expected to: fried Endorian chicken was something he could forget about for good. Still, he was lucky enough to spot some jerked Bantha meat and Gorss steak. That could do.

"I'll– "

His attention fell on a bundle nestled inside a basket between a pile of greenish flesh strips and what looked like hearts of some gigantic species. There was nothing special about it, except that is was moving.

Hux tired to take a closer peek, mildly interested; Butter Newts were usually sold alive and they were cheap and nourishing. A few of those could easily–

Hux's heart skipped a beat.

The thing in the bundle was not Butter Newts, nor anything he had expected to see.

It was a child. A baby. A human-looking baby with dashing black eyes and barely a wisp of electric blue hair. Its skin was pearl white.

"Good for cookin', yes!"

Hux, whose eyes were still transfixed on the tiny creature, blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"Sell other. Custamer bake, say it kriffin' delishiss."

The language of the butcher was crass and approximative, barely intelligible. "Other? There was a second baby?"

The butcher rose all three of its oily fingers. "Thrrree. More small die soon after parent sell." It pointed its middle finger to the baby. "No bery wupiupi 'ere. Smol. Bery bery smol."

Hux was about to be sick. This was a baby. A perfectly healthy, humanoid baby being sold on a filthy stall in one of the worst places Hux had ever had the questionable pleasure to visit. He took a better look at it, picking up more details: faint specks of silver glittered among the darkness of the irises; bluish freckles – or something very similar – dotted the little nose and scattered a little on its sides; its nails were jet black and glossy. All these features together could only mean one thing.

Hux straightened up and took a deep breath. He's just made a very rushed decision which he was likely going to regret it, at some point.

"How much for it?"

The guy's four eyes blinked with their eerie circular lids and eagerly set on the shiny metal buckle of Hux's belt.

Hux stifled a frustrated sigh. He was quite fond of that, but he would have had to get rid of it anyway, eventually. Surviving was top priority.

"Okay," he said as he removed the belt. The tattered robe fell loose around his waist. "Deal."

He threw the best to the butcher, who greedily caught it and stared at it as if it was too good to be real, then clutched it to his chest and gestured Hux to take what he wanted and leave. " 'ooman. Meh."

Not without a mild shock for this extremely reckless move, Hux grasped the handles of the basket and carefully eased it off the stall.

As he disappeared into the crowd, he could hear a distant voice in his head yelling that this whole thing was going to turn against him somehow, sooner or later, but the hustle and bustle of the market made it quite easy to quench.

Nonetheless, one single, inescapable certainty was clear in his mind.

Ren is going to kill me.

Notes:

Okay, this wasn't really meant to happen, but here we are. I had this idea this morning at work and couldn't really rip it out of my head, so... I wrote. This is just an introducion, next (and last) chapter will be much longer.
Hope you guys enjoyed. Reviews are very appreciated, so... yeah, thanks in advance to anyone who's going to leave one!
I proof read this once, but i'm not sure it's enough. I'll be fixing any mistakes/typos asap. Forgive any distraction, it's half past midnight, here. (Also, English is not my native language.)